Fitness Jargon & What It Means: LISS, Drop Sets, Macros & More

If you follow any fitness social media accounts, watch fitness Youtube videos or read fitness-related articles, you are bound do have heard or read some sort of fitness jargon before.

Most of the jargon is abbreviations and if you were to say them to a complete newbie they may look at you with a funny expression on their face.

So I thought I would create a blog post with fitness jargon galore so you can learn what they mean:

MACROS

Macronutrients – Fats, carbohydrates and protein make up the macronutrients. These make up the caloric content of food we eat and aid the production of energy that we use to go about our daily lives. You may hear people talk of “counting macros” whereby they record their food and macronutrients in a food diary.

DOMS

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness – This is a soreness you get in your muscles felt hours to days after strenuous exercise. Famously the soreness can be at it’s worse 48 hours after the workout was done. Don’t fall for the myth that if you don’t experience DOMS you didn’t do a good workout though!

REPS & SETS

Repetitions – Say you were doing 10 squats as a part of your workout, that would mean you did 10 reps. So in short a rep is the number of times you do a certain exercise. Following on from Reps, let’s say you do 5 lots of 10 squats. You would describe this in ‘gym-talk’ as 5 sets of 10 reps.

SUPERSETS

This is when you perform two different exercises back to back without resting. This is a very common technique I use as it makes workouts go a lot quicker and you work hard. Some superset examples would be: squats and then kick-backs, bicep curls and military presses.

COMPOUND MOVEMENTS

These are exercises which use more than one group of muscles at a time. Exercises like squats, bench presses and deadlifts are all examples of compound exercises. These are great fat burners and work your whole body.

DROP SETS

This strength training technique involves switching to a lighter weight mid-set when your muscles get tired, rather than stopping altogether. I commonly use this technique as it is really a muscle burner and you feel it for days after.

HIIT

High Intensity Interval Training – HIIT is a training technique which combines fast-paced, intense exercise with short recovery periods. These workouts are perfect when you don’t have a lot of time to exercise as they can be performed in a shorter amount of time than regular exercise. HIIT is rated as a highly effective way to achieve fat burn in less time.

LISS

Low Intensity Steady State – Being the opposite of High Intensity Interval Training, instead of pushing yourself at a high intensity for a short burst of time, you aim for a low level of exertion for a longer period. LISS training is any low endurance workout like walking, swimming, or cycling, but at a more relaxed level.

1RM

1 Repetition Maximum – The maximum amount of weight you can lift for 1 rep.

HRM

Heart Rate Monitor – This can come in many different forms. Some machines have heart rate monitors built into them, however you can buy wearable ones in the form of a chest strap or watches.